1. Technical Field
This invention generally relates to toothbrushes. More particularly, the invention relates to a powered denture brush. Specifically, the invention relates to a powered denture brush that has a set of powered bristles on both of a first and second side of the head, where some of those bristles may be moved linearly toward and away from the side of the head and others may be rotated about an axis orthogonal to the longitudinal axis of the head.
2. Background Information
It is estimated that somewhere around thirty five-million people in North America have a full or partial set of dentures. The dentures tend to vary quite a bit in size and shape because of the variations in patients' jaws. The most common method of cleaning dentures that is currently in use is to remove the plate from the mouth and to place it into a denture cup holding a cleaning solution. One such suitable cleaning solution is that manufactured and sold under the trademark POLIDENT by Block Drug Company, Inc. of West Trenton, N.J. A manual denture brush may be used in conjunction with the cleaner. As many denture users prefer not to be without their dentures, the manual cleaning approach is much faster and is therefore favored by many. However, manual cleaning requires a significant amount of dexterity and this may present a problem for older denture wearers.
Typical denture brushes have bristles extending outwardly from two opposing sides of the brush head. The bristles are designed for use on opposite sides of the dentures. A set of long pointed bristles extends outwardly from one side of the head and a set of shorter bristles extend outwardly from the other side of the head. The user holds the dentures in one hand and uses the long pointed bristles on the brush to reach into the narrow groove on the tissue fitting side of the denture. The brush movements required for this side of the denture require the user to use semicircular movements to follow the narrow channel in the denture. The teeth-side of the denture requires the user to use the larger, more traditionally shaped bristles to clean the teeth. The teeth-side of the denture is brushed in much the same way that a non-denture wearing person would brush their teeth, with the exception that the dentures are held in one hand.
While these manual brushes are useful for cleaning dentures, they are very difficult for the elderly or the infirm to use. There is therefore a need in the art for an improved denture cleaning brush that makes it quicker and easier to clean both the teeth side and the groove side of a denture.